Kerrigan was never meant to be rescued. Her fundamental arc took her from a position of subservience and betrayal - first under the Confederacy, then under Mengsk - to finally discovering power and meaning under the Overmind. Brood War was entirely her story. Her character was enriched and made infinitely more fascinating by the fact that she wasn't a mind-controlled thrall made evil by some brainwashing - she genuinely enjoyed her position.
Raynor, too, was defined by the tragic inevitability of being forced to kill her. That was what he swore and it's what he should have been forced to (try to) do. Raynor is not and never has been a particularly interesting man, and this was really all he had as a character.
Worst of all was the fact that Kerrigan never did anything. She took not one action that altered the setting or another character after Brood War. There was so much that could have been done on this front - Kerrigan offering to dispose of Mengsk, Kerrigan doing something, anything - but it wasn't. One of the great villains of game history just got to show up, twirl her mustache, repeat 'drats, foiled again!' for a few missions, and then effectively die.
The idea that blasting her with a Xel'naga artifact could somehow change not just her physical capabilities but her personality and beliefs was a narrative mistake of the highest order. She should have been weeping and raging at what was done to her. Never mind that it renders all of Brood War and most of Starcraft an utter waste.
And no, there was no final twist. She will retain control of the Swarms and act as a white hat now.
I hope the multiplayer's fun.
Unfortunately for you, Blizzard has stated the exact opposite regarding Sarah Kerrigan's character. She was intially defined by her Confederate conditioning; then she was defined by her desire to ensure "never again". Being infested did, in fact, result in a violent personality shift. And your belief that it didn't or would is farcical at best considering what exactly infestation involves doing to someone. Of course complete physical reconstruction of your body and ****ing about with your DNA isn't going to **** with your head! Give me a break, Battuta, aren't you a sci-fi author? Transhumanism involves by necessity a shift in perspective; and the Zerg would as a matter of course condition her to be a better servant just as the Confederates did. They've more or less come out and said that leading the swarm is exactly what the Overmind had in mind for her; you think the Overmind would not try and ensure this event came to pass by messing with Kerrigan's head? It can, and it wants a certain sequence of events to occur, and it's committed genocide before to improve its chances so it's not going to give a damn about brainwashing.
I'm well aware of all that, I just think it's stupid. And I think less of Blizzard's writers for going with it.
I have always thought the most chilling and brilliant reading of Kerrigan is that she was selected and chosen because she was willing to become what she did of her own free will. The Overmind did not need another pawn.
No matter how much she was changed by infestation - which I'm perfectly willing to buy - it was apparently the kind of change that can be reversed by a blast of nonspecific Xel'Naga energy. And that's just dumb.
Raynor is the quintessential good guy. You're not the first person I've seen with a hate-on for the concept but frankly I still don't understand it.
I don't have a hate-on for it; I thought he was a decent character in Starcraft. Now he's a boring charisma vacuum. This is because Starcraft 2 has bad writing at the fundamental dialogue level. It's a towering ziggurat made of bricks of wet ****.
The rest of my points stand.
What exactly would you have Kerrigan do?
Something other than fail completely at a few minor tasks and then effectively be taken out of action after a decade of buildup? Kill Mengsk, wipe out the Dominion, something of note. Strike a deal with Raynor to jointly take care of the Dominion in exchange for preserving some human lives. Would have been an interesting plot branch.
What a waste of a game. And a perfectly good mythos at that.
